A Prayer for the New Year
/A Prayer for the New Year and the Road Ahead:
Loosely based on the traditional Unetaneh Tokef Prayer, traditionally recited on Rosh Hashana - the Jewish New Year.
A powerful day
The first of the year
Where we start to worry and start to fuss
Over what will happen
It’s hard to trust
It’s awe-inspiring, it fills us with fear
What’s coming for the New Year?
We start to remember, based on deeds of the past
That whatever we had planned didn’t necessarily come to pass
There’s usually a plan, call it luck, I call it Divine
That rearranges the cards and draws the lines
The fact is, the Creator knows what’s on the upcoming playlist
Sometimes shuffling, sometimes rearranging
Adding a new “next up”
To the cosmic lineup
It’s all laid out, there’s a route, there’s a map
Then we take the wheel
And it’s all “recalculating!”
You took the wrong step, or was it a lesson in life?
Not just mishap
The thing is they’re not missteps, they’re all planned and Divine
Signed and sealed and based on what we’ve lined up in the everflowing pass of time
We can get real scared, clam up and freak out
Think about all the crap we’ve sent out in the universe,
Hands up over face, defence position
I’m sorry Mama, Papa! Please don’t shout.
Or we can listen to the call,
The cry that tells us it’s all
Going to be okay
Just fine
Wonderful, even
If we let it happen
Step in the flow
Pray with our hearts and minds
Set up an intention
We’re good to go
So instead of meditating on life or death
Contamination or salvation
Incarceration or elation
Subjugation or freedom
Repression or self expression
Decimation or creation?
Degredation or exaltation?
Perspiration or celebration?
Suffocation or exhalation?
We can change it all
The power’s in our hands
It starts with a quick reorientation
A snap of the strings
A prayer, a wish, a decision to do something
Different
Better
Than before
A decision never to turn back the roads travelled past
To break the habits of years
And bring in justice into deeds whose impact will last
Chew on this:
Where are we off to?
Where do we want to go?
Which turnstile did I enter?
Which station am I idling at?
Which train am I embarking?
Where am I heading?
Line it all up, it’s there for us
We’re not the fanciest of all creatures, we’re pretty weak
We’re flesh and blood, we like to eat and sleep
There’s all kinds of nastiness that runs through our veins
We come from dust, we pray for rains
We can’t eat without benevolence from above
We can’t sleep without fear and so we run from love
We’re a broken pot shard in the scheme of things
But we can flower and grow
If we only acknowledge the setup
The ability to change the direction
With some introspection
There’s a God out there, Great Spirit, Love that’s Divine
And it’s all planned in a way that’s going to be sublime
If we choose to, we can rid ourselves of fear of death
And jump into the wind
Of goodness
Love
Life
And
Breath
A few outward deeds that indicate the time is near
To be the best damn person I can be
This new calendar year
“You will see, you will see, just how good it will be, in the year, in the year, that’s to come!”